A Close Shave
'A Close Shave' is a 1995 animated film directed by Nick Park featuring his characters Wallace and Gromit. It was his third half-hour short featuring the eccentric inventor Wallace and his quiet but smart dog Gromit. It shares the same title as the episode from Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends, starring Duck, because "A Close Shave" is in the UK, and has been re-titled as "A Close Shave for Duck" in the US. This film was aired in the UK on Christmas Eve, 1995. ''A Close Shave won the 1996 Academy Award for an Animated Short Film. Plot At night, a small sheep escapes from a lorry and enters the house of Wallace and Gromit, who are running a window-cleaning business. The next morning, they fail to notice the sheep chewing on their furniture, including the wiring of their porridge gun (which causes it to malfunction and cover poor Wallace with porridge), before leaving for work. They get a call from Wendolene, whose windows need to be cleaned. While there, Wallace falls in love with Wendolene, while Preston, Wendolene's sinister dog, grows jealous of Gromit. When they get home, they find the sheep, who had wrecked their house and is covered in a mess. To clean him up, Wallace puts him into one of his inventions: the Knit-O-Matic. Gromit programs it to give a "Wash." The machine malfunctions and resets to "Light Shave" and gives the sheep a shear. Wallace names him "Shaun" ( a pun on the word "shorn." Preston spies on the scene and later steals the blueprints for the machine. Later, while Wallace is talking with Wendolene, Preston's jealousy for Gromit grows and he finally frames him for the butchering sheep and has him sent to jail for life. Wallace, Shaun, and the other sheep later rescue Gromit from prison and they hide in a field. When Wendolene and Preston arrive to round up the sheep, Wendolene turns against Preston after seeing him growling at Shaun and requests that he stop the sheep thefts. Instead, he locks her up with the intention of turning her (and the other sheep) into dog meat. Wallace and Gromit give chase on their motorbike, hoping to save Wendolene and the sheep and clear Gromit's name. However just as it seems they have lost Preston was hiding the lorry in a disused barn. He chases after them with the lorry trying to run them off the road. But Gromit using the ladder climbs to the top, grabs some telephone wires and flips himself and Wallace upside down in mid air causing them to land to the safety of behind Preston's lorry. During the chase, the sidecar Gromit rides in separates and nosedives off the edge of a 2,000 foot cliff. Gromit saves himself by activating the sidecar's ability to transform into an airplane, and flies after Wallace's motorbike and the lorry. Their attempts to stop Preston (Wallace loading the sheep onto the motorbike and Gromit using the porridge gun) fail and Wallace gets trapped in the lorry as well. The captives are taken into Preston's factory, where they discover that Preston has built a giant replica of the Knit-O-Matic using the blueprints. The captives are loaded into the wash basin, with Shaun escaping, and Preston pulls out the nozzle to suck them into the machine. As Wallace and Wendolene fight against the suction, Shaun reveals the factory's location to Gromit using neon advertisements. Gromit flies in and attacks Preston with the porridge gun. The distraction allows Shaun to suck Preston into the machine using the nozzle, which Gromit programs to give a "Close Shave." During the shearing, Wendolene reveals that Preston is actually a robotic dog and was built by her father, Mr. Ramsbottom, to serve the family. He breaks out of the machine with his fake fur and skin ripped off, revealing his robotic form. The machine plops a sweater made of his fake fur on him; he blunders around and raises the platform everyone is on up to level of the conveyor belt of his "Mutton-O-Matic" mincing machine. Gromit swings over them on a rope, knocking Preston and himself onto the conveyor belt. Preston rips apart his sweater at this point and they both start running. Wallace tries to turn off the belt, but increases it speed. Then Wendolene begs him to do something and he accidentally loads everyone on. As they all fight against the belt, Shaun swings over them on an anvil and knocks Preston into the machine, destroying him and breaking him into his own dog food. At the end of the film, Wendolene, while visting Wallace, reveals that Preston was rebuilt with completely normal dog behavior and a remote control. Wallace originally offers to let Wendolene into his home for his cheese, to which he discovers with much dismay that Wendolene could not stand cheese if it causes her to break out into a rash. A distraught Wallace decides to console himself with some cheese, only to find Shaun eating it. Gromit, who had been lifted of all charges of the sheep thefts, ignores both. Characters *Wallace (voiced by Peter Sallis) *Gromit *Shaun *Wendolene (voiced by Anne Reid) *Preston *The Flock *Feathers McGraw (mentioned only) Trivia *This film has the same UK title as a Season 2 episode of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends. *Stock footage from The Wrong Trousers is used. *The film is produced in 4:3, but it is matted to a 16:9 widescreen for unknown reasons. However, the original 4:3 version remains on VHS and DVD in the US and other international countries. *When Wallace receives a call for window-cleaning service, his method of getting to his motorbike and out onto the road is very similar from the 60's show Thunderbirds. The same method used by Virgil Tracy to enter Thunderbird 2 and take off. *This film reveals that Wallace & Gromit's telephone number is 2143. *Nick Park met Anne Reid after the film was finished. *The first Wallace and Gromit film where Wallace's voice isn't the only human voice. *Preston, the evil villain dog, is the name of the town where Nick Park was born. *There is a large billboard with a painting of Baker Bob and the slogan, "Buy Bob's Buns". Wallace probably took over the business, before the 12 bakers were murdered by Piella Bakewell. *The film takes course over four days, from the morning Tuesday the 14th on a unknown month (Wallace commenting that he eats porridge on Tuesdays) to the morning of Saturday the 18th (the calendar in Gromit's jail cell saying Friday the 17th on the night of the Knit-o-Matic incident). *Shaun's ability to hide, escaping detection even from Gromit, later helps him in Shaun the Sheep. *There is no evidence in A Close Shave ''and ''Shaun the Sheep Movie ''that Shaun the Sheep in Wallace and Gromit is the same as the Shaun the Sheep in Shaun the Sheep as Shaun is featured, younger than A Close Shave Shaun, in the first scene of the movie. *The lorry used can be based on a Guy Otter and the motorcycle is a Triumph Tiger Cub with a sidecar. *The ''Learn English with Wallace and Gromit version cuts out the scene where Shaun is shaved by the Knit-O-Matic. Goofs / Errors *The picture on top shows Gromit missing his tail and toes on his back legs.﻿ *When Shaun is being washed in the basement, the Knit-O-Matic malfunctions and switches the setting from "Wash" to "Light Shave". After Wallace tells Gromit to do something, you can tell by the lights on the settings that the Knit-O-Matic is still programmed to "Wash". When we see Preston's point of view from where he is hiding a few seconds later, the Knit-O-Matic is once again programmed to "Light Shave". *Wallace loses his green vest from beneath his overalls when he lands on his motorbike. *When Gromit climbs up the ladder during the motorbike chase, he places the base in the sidecar. When he grabs the cables, Wallace grabs the base of the ladder as it rises; after they finish the spin, Wallace places the foot of the ladder in front of him. *For the split second you see the reverse side of the first door Gromit flies through, the circle to be cut out by his propeller is clearly visible. *After Wallace gives Wendolene balls of wool, the balls change positions between shots. *The porridge gun shoots at Wallace, and some of it lands on the wall. In the next shot, the porridge is gone. * While Gromit is flying his plane in the air above Preston's factory, the propeller is briefly stopped. * During the scene where he imprisons Gromit in the lorry and four times during the car chase, Preston is shown making evil smiles as the lorry closes on the motorbike or when he gets the advantage in the chase. How can he make smiles if he has no muscles underneath his fake skin to operate it with? It could be that he was built with robotic levers underneath the skin to operate it with, but these are not seen when his fake skin is torn off and his robotic form is revealed. * Preston's fake teeth are shown to be white like real teeth when he growls at Shaun. However, when his robotic form is revealed, they become silver along with the rest of his body. * When Gromit falls in and saves Shaun from Preston, the anvil was able to pull both of them up, showing that the anvil weighs more than Gromit and Shaun combined. Later, Shaun swings in over the conveyor belt with the anvil and knocks Preston into the mincers. In order for Shaun to move as fast as Gromit (without the anvil) did, there has to be a great deal of force involved, and hitting Preston probably wasn't enough to stop Shaun's momentum, so Shaun should also fallen into the machine. The makers may have prevented Shaun from falling into the machine as he is a protagonist. Quotes Wendolene: Yer dog's waiting. 'Wallace: '''Aye I'd better see to him. The bounce has gone from his bungee. '''Wallace: '''Why don't you come in? We were just about to have some cheese. '''Wendolene: '''Oh no, not cheese. Sorry. Brings me out a rash. Can't stand the stuff. '''Wallace: '(gulp) Not even Wenslydale? (last lines) 'Wallace: '''What's wrong with Wenslydale? Talking of which, all the more for us and not a sheep to worry us. (Lifts the cover tray to discover Shaun eating the cheese) '''Wallace: '''Get off me cheese! Get off!!! Get o... Gromit? Gromit! Go for 'im! Oh! (Shaun swallows and bleats, before the screen switches to credits) (to Gromit after he escapes from the jail with the help of Wallace and the sheep) '''Wallace: '''I suppose you'll have to skip the country now. A fugitive ay? You'll be hunted down like... well, a dog. '''Wendolene: '''I'm sorry about this. '''Wallace: '''For what? '''Wendolene: '''Nothing. Just stay away from me, from my shop, and my silly, silly windows. '''Wendolene: '''He's malfunctioning. '''Wallace: '''Mal what? '''Wendolene: '''Malfunctioning. Preston is a cyber dog. '''Wallace: '''Cyber what? '''Wendolene: '''A robot. (Preston's robotic arm punches through the machine and opens a door) Daddy created him for good but, he's turned out evil. '''Wallace: '''Have you been peckish during the night? Only someone has been at me cheese. '''Wallace: '''Is this place yours? '''Wendolene: '''Mm-hmm. My father left it to me. Along with his debuts, and a few other things. '''Wendolene: '''Oh, I want no more of this rustling. It wasn't so bad when it was just the wool, but... this is evil! Daddy didn't create you for this. You're suppose to protect me! (Preston locks her away with Shaun on the back of the truck) '''Wendolene: '''Let me out! You're not going to turn me into dog meat! (the sheep climbed on top of Wallace in order to help Gromit escape from prison) '''Wallace: '(as they pull Gromit to safety) Oh, brillant teamwork, lads! 'Wallace: '(he slips on a bar of soap lying on the pavement and all the sheep come crashing down, bleating) Oh! 'Wallace: '(seeing Preston operate a replica of Wallace's Wash-O-Matic) Where'd you get that from? That's MY machine! I've gotten a patent pending on that! Credits *Director: Nick Park *Producers: David H. DePatie, Tom Ruegger *Executive Producers: Peter Lord, David Sproxton *Executive Producer for BBC: David H. DePatie *Written by: David H. DePatie, Nick Park *Music: Joe Raposo, Julian Nott *Voices: Peter Sallis, Anne Reid *Film Editor: Helen Garrard *Key Character Animator: Steve Box *Character Animators: Loyd Price, Peter Peake, Gary Cureton, Nick Park *Assistant Animators: Sergio Delfino, Ian Whitlock File:ACloseShaveAussieVHS.jpg|Australian VHS A Close Shave.jpg Category:Films Category:A Close Shave